1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus using a public telephone network, and in particular, to a facsimile apparatus with a telephone base.
2. Description of the Related Art
In facsimile apparatuses hitherto in use for transmitting and receiving electrical signals representing image information through a public telephone network, a telephone connected to the public telephone network and a facsimile apparatus are placed side by side on a desk or the like, or a telephone and a facsimile are placed separately on the upper part and the lower part of a rack or the like in order to put a space to a good use.
In the former it is necessary to ensure a space for the telephone in addition to a space for the facsimile apparatus, therefore such former apparatus is not preferable with a viewpoint of space efficiency. In the latter it is necessary to provide a rack or the like in order to accommodate and arrange vertically these telephone and facsimile apparatus, therefore there is such a problem that a cost required for installing the facsimile apparatus and the telephone becomes expensive.
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publications No. 57 (1982)-160259 and Japanese Utility Model Publications No. 58 (1983)-61571, a facsmilie apparatus, which is provided with both a telephone placing portion for installing a telephone and a original placing portion for installing an original, for example manuscript, map, a photograph, or other fixed graphic material etc, is disclosed. However, the telephone placing portion is disposed alongside the original placing portion having nearly the same plane size as the telephone placing portion, so that the facsimile apparatus is incapable of having a small plane size and in comparison with the usual case in which a telephone and a facsimile apparatus are placed separately side by side no improvement is performed from a viewpoint of space efficiency.
In Japanese Utility Model Publications No. 58 (1983)-19561 a facsimile apparatus with a telephone base which doubles as a protecting cover of the facsimile apparatus is disclosed. The telephone base constitutes an upper side surface of a housing of the facsimile apparatus so as to reduce the plane size of the apparatus. While this disclosure avoids the above-mentioned problem, a detailed construction, to reduce the thickness of the housing of the facsimile apparatus, is not shown or provided.